


Back Down to the Valley

by INMH



Series: Merry Month of Masturbation Fills (2020) [17]
Category: Far Cry 5, Far Cry: New Dawn
Genre: Drama, F/M, Masturbation, Merry Month of Masturbation Challenge, Oral Sex, Pining, Romance, Sexual Content, Strong Language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-17
Updated: 2020-05-17
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:34:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23802415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/INMH/pseuds/INMH
Summary: Jess comes back to Hope County. Sharky’s delighted.
Relationships: Jess Black/Sharky Boshaw
Series: Merry Month of Masturbation Fills (2020) [17]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1690234
Kudos: 11





	Back Down to the Valley

**Author's Note:**

> You will pry the hope that Jess Black is still alive from my cold, dead hands.

Life at Prosperity wasn’t that bad at all.  
  
Not quite as exciting, but certainly not bad.  
  
“Not gonna lie, kinda wish I still had the space to blow shit up without worrying about the whole place going up in flames,” Sharky said as he took his goggles off and shoved the crate of gunpowder back under the table, “But it’s nice having so much material that I don’t gotta go dragging back through the water and shit.”  
  
Blade, strapped to his chest, giggled.  
  
Sharky took it as an agreement. “Yeah, I know there was a lot more boom-boom at the other place, but we can’t just go detonating shit all willy-nilly here or there, little too dangerous with you on board.”  
  
“Well, looks like someone grew a few new brain-cells while I was gone.”  
  
Sharky froze, frowned, and then turned around.  
  
“Well God-damn.”  
  
The woman leaning against the doorframe huffed a laugh. “Good to see you too.”  
  
“Jessie,” Sharky whispered.  
  
Jess Black sighed, head lolling back to bump against the doorframe. “Fuck if I haven’t told you to _stop calling me that_ since before the goddamn Peggies took over.”  
  
To Sharky’s eye, Jess had barely changed since their war with Eden’s Gate: Same scowl, same long hair, same bow slung over her shoulder. Maybe a couple of new scars on her face, from the look of it, but overall she didn’t look all that different from when she’d left the county almost ten years back.  
  
Sharky didn’t like remembering the day she left.  
  
Made him feel all funny inside.  
  
“Like shit, Jess, you ain’t aged a day,” Sharky said, looking her up and down.  
  
“You’re not looking too decrepit either,” Jess remarked, stepping forward and looking him over too. “This is new, though: Didn’t I warn you against going full furry?” She reached up to tug at Sharky’s beard lightly. “There’s no going back. Although, it looks like it got you _some_ fans.”  
  
“Huh?”  
  
Jess raised an eyebrow pointedly at Blade.  
  
“Oh, Blade! Yeah, no, he’s actually Hurk’s son, but I’ve been playing mommy because he and Gina have been off doing bang-bang-boom shit against the Highwaymen.”  
  
Jess blinked slowly. “So _Hurk_ … Hurk Drubman Jr.…Managed to get laid and have a kid?”  
  
Sharky snorted. “Hell yeah! He’s got some serious game.”  
  
Jess pressed her fingers to the sides of her nose, shakes her head lightly. “Christ. Leave for a decade and shit goes all topsy-turvy.”  
  
_Yeah, well, no one made you leave._  
  
It wasn’t a very nice thought to have, and so Sharky pushed it away.  
  
All sorts of people had dealt with the Collapse their own way- the ones that were still alive, anyway. The Ryes had made a commune, Auntie Addie and Xander had gone south in Tulip, Deputy Rook had put on that mask and stopped talking and had started following Joseph Seed around, and Jess- like a lot of others- had decided to pack up and leave the county.  
  
“Not much left here for me,” Was what she’d told Pastor Jerome, Sharky listening in nearby. “Figure I may as well see what else might’ve survived or died.”  
  
And that had been a kick in the teeth, honestly, because there were plenty of people in Hope County who gave a lotta shits about Jess and would’ve been happy to have her around- Sharky, for instance.  
  
But she’d gone ahead and left anyway.  
  
Kinda broke Sharky’s heart, if he was being honest.  
  
“So this mean you’re back?” Sharky asked now, wanting to cross his arms and look all chill- except that Blade was still strapped to him and crossing his arms would be pretty much impossible. “Like, for good?”  
  
Jess had a damn good poker-face. “Don’t know about ‘for good’,” She muttered. “But for now, at least.”  
  
“That’s good,” Sharky said, still trying to sound chill. “That’s real good."  
  
[---]  
  
He totally wasn’t stalking her.  
  
“God-damn cousin, why are you tailing Jessie around so much? You’re like a little love-sick puppy or somethin’,” Hurk observed one day as he bounced Blade up and down on his knee. And that was a real ironic observation on his part, considering how mopey and lovesick _he’d_ been when Gina’d been held captive by the Highwaymen. “You done missed that girl real bad, didn’t you?”  
  
“Well, uh, yeah,” Sharky said, trying to sound nonchalant. “Like, how many people are still around that we knew before the Collapse, dude? Kinda nice to have someone else that ain’t blown away in the wind.”  
  
Hurk frowned. “Aw, well, now you got me all sad,” he said.  
  
Most people in Prosperity didn’t know Jess, what with so many being from outside the county and having come after she’d already left. Sharky totally wasn’t stalking her, but he was watching closely enough to notice everyone’s reactions to her- mostly confusion or indifference. _Hey now, that lady killed, like, five hundred-thousand Peggies before the bombs_ , Sharky wanted to tell them. _We’d a had her when the Highwaymen were kicking off and shit would never have gotten that bad._  
  
Mostly she sat on the steps of the main house, or near Nick’s garage. Sharky saw her talking with Carmina a few times, the younger girl delighted to meet another stranger from her parents’ past. Jess still wasn’t a smiley sort of person, but he could tell from what little he could hear that she was talking nicely enough with Carmina and everyone else.  
  
Sharky was cool, he was really cool, and so he kept his distance for the most part and only came up to talk to her once or twice at first.  
  
“So where you been, Jess?”  
  
Jess shrugged, pulling her arrows from their quiver and testing the tips for sharpness. “Got through most of the Northwest; went to Yellowstone a few years back. Furthest east I got was Minneapolis about six years ago. Meant to go south for a while, but I got a lot of people coming from that way warning me about the Highwaymen and decided to backtrack. They’ve got a lot of chapters across the country.” Her lip quirked. “So, did you and Hurk ever become Mad Max-style warlords?”  
  
“Nah, nope, that kinda went out the window when we realized how much goddamn ethanol that would take,” Sharky sighed. “I mean the Highwaymen are living the dream, but they’re super-big douche-nozzles and we’re not about that.”  
  
“Yeah, figured as much.”  
  
Silence.  
  
Should he ask?  
  
Maybe not- Sharky wasn’t always the most tactful person in the world, but he’d had a pretty good read on Jess before she’d left Hope County and he wasn’t sure if Jess would read something into it.  
  
He was just curious.  
  
Really, really curious.  
  
“So, you spend all that time alone?” Sharky asked, hiding the real question as subtly as he could. “You join up with any other people, find any other places like Prosperity? Or did you do your Lone Wolf thing for ten years?”  
  
If Jess sensed the real question- _did you go hooking up with anyone else while you were gone_ \- she didn’t say.  
  
“Traveled with the odd group here or there, but for the most part I kept to myself. People aren’t what they used to be-” She rolled her eyes. “Not that they were great before. But you know: When people are hungry and sick and tired they’ll do all sorts of shit. Best to keep some distance unless you know ‘em well enough to trust ‘em.”  
  
“Huh.” Sharky swallowed. “Must’ve been lonely.”  
  
Jess shrugged. “Here and there.”  
  
Sharky was quiet for a moment. “I really missed you, Jess.” He doesn’t look at her as he says it.  
  
Jess didn’t respond for a moment or two. Then she said, very softly, “Guess I missed you too.”  
  
That was nice to hear. That was _really_ nice to hear.  
  
[---]  
  
It had been really, really brief.  
  
One-night stand, and all that.  
  
Jess had been with him and Hurk and a handful of Whitetails at a campsite, and there had been some booze. At some point (Sharky’s memories were sketchy) he and Jess had ended up in the underbrush, his sweatshirt thrown to the side and his arms around Jess’s waist. In the morning, Jess had offered him a smirk that had a little shyness to it, something Sharky wasn’t accustomed to from her.  
  
They’d parted on good terms that day.  
  
And then, two weeks later, the bombs fell.  
  
Sharky, Hurk, Adelaide and Xander left their bunker three years in. Things were shit, but manageable; Jess had spent four years in a bunker with a few other Whitetails. She’d been pale and wide-eyed the first time Sharky saw her, and didn’t resist when he’d lifted her into the air in a hug.  
  
“The Whitetails are fucked,” she’d whispered.  
  
“Everything’s fucked,” Sharky had responded with a shrug.  
  
Now that he looked back, Jess had obviously been traumatized by the destruction wrought upon the county. She’d always been outdoorsy, and she’d lived in Hope County her whole life. Sharky loved to burn shit, and burnt-out trees and shit didn’t bother him as much. She’d probably left to find someplace that didn’t look as fucked up as Montana did now.  
  
But Jess was back today, and Sharky was hoping to keep it that way.  
  
“You don’t gotta go running off into the wilderness again so fast,” Sharky rambled as they sat by one of the fires in Prosperity that night, a curious throwback to that night seventeen years ago- alcohol and all, though he wasn’t nearly as far gone as he’d been then. “I mean, Carmina and Gina really like you and it’d be super awesome if you could teach Blade to shoot shit when he’s older, because he’s already, like, Baby Rambo and we’re figuring we’re just gonna encourage it-”  
  
“Sharky.”  
  
Sharky clamped his mouth shut.  
  
Jess’s hood was down, and her eyes were bright in the firelight. “Fuck,” she sighed. “I really did miss you, you gigantic dumbass.”  
  
She kissed him, and Sharky just _melted_.  
  
They ended up in the shadows beneath one of the buildings, out of sight and just secluded enough that they wouldn’t be heard. The only really big difference between today and seventeen years ago was that condoms were _way_ more readily available back then, and they’ve gotta be even more careful now to make sure that no accidental babies pop up from their fun.  
  
_Gotta put that on the shopping list_ , Sharky thinks as he pulls Jess’s jeans down in the dark. _Gotta look around, see if I can’t find some condoms. Maybe that Cadoret dude could track some down when he’s out and about. Really gotta make this a fucking priority._  
  
“I take it back,” Jess panted as he went down on her, “The beard’s a great addition, Sharky. Keep it.”  
  
Sharky hummed, and she groaned, thighs trembling against his cheeks.  
  
He slipped a hand into his pants, jerking himself as he worked on Jess. It had been a long time and he was pretty certain he was gonna come before she ever got a chance to get her hands on him, but that was fine: Frankly, he was just grateful that she was here and they were doing this at all, that he didn’t have to wonder where she was or if she was ever coming back.  
  
“ _Fuck_ , fuck, Sharky, _fuck-!_ ”  
  
Her fingers dug into Sharky’s scalp, legs like a vise around his head.  
  
Sharky humped into his fist a few more times and came too, groaning into Jess’s inner-thigh.  
  
“I’m glad you’re back, Jess,” Sharky mumbled against her stomach.  
  
Her fingers scratched lightly against his scalp. “Glad to be back, Sharky.”  
  
This time, he hoped she’d stay.  
  
-End


End file.
